China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has in recent years carried out many such drills around the island, seeking to assert its sovereignty claims and pressure Taipei.
Warships from China's southern and eastern theatre commands have been operating together off Taiwan's east coast, he added.
China has not commented about the drills around Taiwan, and its defence ministry has not responded to requests for comment.
But China has increasingly been flexing its muscles off Taiwan's east coast, and generally displaying its ability to operate much further away from China's own coastline.
China normally performs large-scale exercises from July to September, Taiwan's defence ministry has said.
Persons:
Chiu Kuo, cheng, Chiu, Sun Li, Ben Blanchard, Roger Tung, Shri Navaratnam
Organizations:
Taiwan Defence, Eastern Theatre Command
Locations:
TAIPEI, Taiwan, Shandong, China, Taipei